After an exhaustive review of existing journalism and studies regarding Twitter and its use by Canadian politicians, please find following this handy template for your own article or study*:
Paragraph 2: Background on Twitter: uses 140 characters only, number of overall Twitter users, when Twitter was founded. More serious articles can reference provide context of Twitter in social media
Paragraph 3: Count the number of followers for politicians who tweet regularly and whomever has the most, equate this with best practices on Twitter. Give bonus marks if the politician follows others. Give extra bonus marks if the politician responds occasionally to the public's responses. This also makes a great side bar with a data table or bar graph.
Paragraphs 4&5: detail the politicians who tweet regularly and reflect on their keeping things professional and avoiding being overly personal with the provision that the odd personal tweet helps to show that politicians are people too (it is social media after all). You do not need to present the overall messaging and tone of the selected politician's timeline, just a tweet or 2 is sufficient.
Paragraph 6 (optional): point out that some politicians - such as the party leaders - have large followings but seldom, if ever, respond to the public's tweets. Muse over the obvious fact that staffers are tweeting for them. Quickly point out that many politicians with Twitter accounts rarely tweet.
Conclusion: state that social media is a new technology platform and that there are no existing protocols so politicians are learning as they go - be sure to ignore any existing government information protocols that may already apply in Canada. Also, be sure to ignore the British Government's Twitter guide which lays out exactly government Twitter use in a thoughtful and comprehensive manner.
* If you are doing a study, insert a few graphs and charts.
Things to avoid:
- While you do this as matter of routine in other research for your work, avoid asking politicians directly for quotes on their Twitter use such as "why do you tweet?" "what are the biggest challenges tweeting?" "who do you follow and why?" "do you block anyone from following your tweets?" This kind of context just muddies the waters.
- Do not mention unequal public access to government information where MPs or government accounts, which are clearly labeled such, block members of the public who have challenged them or who are blocked merely because they are from another party. Pretend that #mygovtblocks hash tag doesn't exist. This requires actual research and should be avoided.
